getting its due now thatjohnkerryisabout to take over? joining us now is andrea mitchell, nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent and the host "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. thank you for being with me. >> thank you. >> to see hillary clinton talking to anybody gets news coverage. to see her going hand to hand with senator ron johnson of wisconsin is guaranteed to get a lot of attention. but what do you think was the most important take-away from this testimony today? >> that she is a fighter, that they obviously, the republicans think that she is a likely candidate, because they were trying to muddy her up. i think that both partisans on both sides, the democrats congratulating her and a wink and a nod, we hope we see more of you and this isn't the last we'll see of you, and the republicans saying all the tough things they're saying about benghazi. there are, look, legitimate criticisms about benghazi, and the state department was devastated by the report, the independent action report, the review board that ambassador pickering and admiral mullen reported back. they very expl

was. >> equally qualified asjohnkerry? >>i think so. >> fair enough. >> she was just one. michelle flournoy would have been. >> i think they were just pushing against kerry. against hagel. >> against hagel and be a con train to the president. >> one of the most important people in the president's inner circle in the first term was nancy-ann deparle. had it not been for her they wouldn't have passed the health care bill. she was absolutely indispensable. she's leaving, however. >> the great irony is nobody's more powerful in the inner circle than a woman. valerie jarrett. he's known her a long time. she was an executive in chicago. he knows her well. this is an argument we'll have in america and we should always. >> and we'll judge him by the final results. i'll put that out there. >> thank you. >>> up next, press secretary -- let's take a look at the guy who's a far out guy. steve stockman who was an ally when he was first elected and now is in the mainstream of the republican party. the republican party has moved from mainstream conservative to radical. >>> we're coming right back

johnkerry. eightyears later, not one gay question came up. the gay issue never came up as a wedge issue, eight years later. i think that's also a great sign of progress how far this country has come on the issue of -- on the issue of gay rights in to toe, not just same sex marriage, but should gays and lesbians be treated equally under the law, as the president said in this is inaugural address and to add on something joe just said, i'm not sure in 2014 democrats in swing districts will be running away from the president's inaugural address, i'll be curious what the president says in his state of the union address, that's where he gets down to the nitty-gritty of policy descriptions for the country. >> one of the other quick moments, i was thinking about the defense of marriage act, the fact it's coming up before the supreme court and the president gave stonewall unprecedent ed mention in the inaugural address. you had story the other day in the "new york times" about a gay couple, two women soldiers in afghanistan, who needed post-trauma counseling and went -- their chaplains tol

. i think he's put together potentially a very good team. ithinkkerryandhagel and brennan and in a curious way now as the presidential adviser, but his very much interest in affairs with a team that's going to focus more on the problems on the ground. that is to say basic fundamental strategic challenges that are confronting us. mrs. clinton was terrific. i like her. i respect her. she was enormously energetic. but she had more of a visionary agenda, global warming, global problems, suffering, injustice, jends jendser gender issues, rheau is rights. >> all extremely important. >> but if we don't deal with the problems confronting us right now, we'll never get to dealing with the big problems in the end. so i am hoping that this new team will really address serious problems that obama didn't finish addressing. >> the theory of the case for this new team now because the reality is that we're going through a transition into a post-superpower world. we are still a superpow er, but there comes a point where we're not. and if you study obama and look at him, he wants to avoid wa